Father ‘Sorry’ for Boys Who Allegedly Threw Rock That Left Son in a Coma

Ralph Meyering, whose 24-year-old son remains in a coma at Mercy Hospital, said Wednesday he felt sorry for the two boys who allegedly put his son there.

“What can I say, their lives are ruined now, too,” Meyering said. He spoke as his wife, Carolyn, and his son’s girlfriend, Jane Casey, sat beside him during a press conference at the hospital. “They ruined their lives, they ruined their families’ lives, they ruined my son’s life . . . and our family.”

His son, Kurt R. Meyering, an aspiring actor from San Carlos, has been in critical condition and hooked to a life-support system in the hospital’s intensive care unit since Feb. 29, when a nine-pound chunk of concrete smashed through the sunroof of the 1984 Corvette he was driving on Interstate 5 at the Pershing Drive overpass. Casey was a passenger in the car and escaped injury. She had bought the car 15 minutes before the incident.

Tips Led to Arrests

Two boys, aged 13 and 15, were arrested Tuesday by the San Diego Police Department as the result of numerous tips from witnesses.

The 13-year-old was picked up at the school he attends in Golden Hill, Assistant Police Chief Robert Burgreen said. The 15-year-old was arrested near his Point Loma home. The Police Department has asked the district attorney’s office to charge the youths with three counts of attempted murder because, Burgreen said, more than one rock was hurled onto the freeway that night.

“For the people who did this, I know Kurt won’t have any hate in his heart and I don’t either,” Meyering said.

The boys, being held in Juvenile Hall, may be charged when they appear for a detention hearing this afternoon.

“In no way did I think they would find them,” Meyering said of the arrests. “I feel so much better now knowing that they are not going to do that again.”

Meyering said he wanted to thank San Diegans for their support and the police for efforts to seek information about the incident from the public through its Crime Stoppers program. The Meyering family distributed flyers asking anyone with information about the incident to contact authorities.

“It didn’t die down,” he said. “It just kept on until we found them.”

‘He’ll Make It’

The senior Meyering will return to his Seattle home today. He said his eight children “are all grown up and there never has been no problem at all.”

“This is the worst our family has ever gone through,” he said.

“About all I can say is that everybody out there, if they pray for Kurt, he’ll make it. He’s still in a coma, but he’ll make it.”

Hospital spokeswoman Laura Avallone said Kurt Meyering has been in a drug-induced coma to reduce pressure on his brain as a result of the injury. She said the extent of brain damage will not be known until doctors begin to reduce the medication keeping Meyering in the coma.

“They are hoping that they can begin that sometime during the next week,” she said.

The district attorney’s office plans to formally charge the youths today, spokeswoman Linda Miller said. It is unlikely that they will be tried as adults, she said.

“Sixteen is the bottom line,” she said. “There is no way that a 15- and a 13-year-old could be tried as adults.”